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7 Things You (Probably) Didn't Know About Imax

I recently posed a question to a number of friends: “What the heck is Imax?”

“It means bigger and louder!” “It means the maximum amount of movie your eyeballs can process.” “When I was young, it meant the screen was everything the eyes could see. Now it means tickets cost more.”

But despite the hard-to-shake public perception that Imax is simply synonymous ginormous screens (a reputation that has caused no small backlash as the brand spreads to screens that aren’t as overwhelmingly large as the science museums it made its name in), Imax really is more than this: It’s is a technology company, a movie theater configuration, a type of camera and film.

It’s also everywhere: At least 21 major film releases will get the Imax treatment in 2013. And as consumers wishing to get this extra dose of summer blockbusting pay a few extra bucks for their Imax tickets, it seemed like a good time to look back at the company’s rather unexpected history.

1) Imax Started As An Experimental Film CompanyIt all began at Montreal Expo ’67, where filmmakers Roman Kroitor and Graeme Ferguson experimented with multiprojector, multiscreen film systems. The idea: With different images projected onto different screens, the filmmakers could create a large moving mosaic that would push the boundaries. Break rules! Blow minds!

Predictably, this bizarre projection setup wasn’t the easiest trick to pull off. As a result Kroitor and Ferguson teamed up with future Imax cofounders Bill Shaw and Robert Kerr to launch a company called Multi-Screen, with the goal of taming this technology. The company soon shifted its focus to single large-screen images—and its name to Imax.

2) Imax is an abbreviation for “Image Maximum”

3) Imax Cameras Are Really Hard To Shoot WithFor filmmakers, large format means a large number of challenges—Imax cameras tend to be much heavier, louder, and generally more difficult to shoot with than their non-Imax counterparts. For example, the sheer size of the film stock means that the camera can only hold about three minutes at once. When that’s done, the filmmakers must spend several minutes reloading the reels.

These challenges are one reason even the most high-profile (and high-budget) Imax movies tend to only actually use Imax cameras for select scenes.

4) How To Spot A Scene Shot With Imax CamerasPro tip: When watching an Imax film, you can tell which scenes were shot using Imax cameras because the aspect ratio suddenly switches to a square-er, more vertical orientation. When you watch the same film on a non-Imax screen, the tops and bottoms of the image are actually letterboxed off, and you don’t see the entire scene.

5) The Funky Way Imax Film Is Fed Through Cameras“To allow for as much screen space as possible, the film runs through the cameras and projectors sideways, with the sprocket holes at the top and bottom instead of the sides,” says Rich Gelfond, Imax’s CEO. “And the audio track doesn’t appear on the film print, but on a separate program that is synced to the projector.”

6) The First permanent Imax theater has been in place for 32 yearsThe world’s first permanent Imax theater still stands today.

The dome-shaped Cinesphere (which takes more than a few design cues from Buckminster Fuller) at Toronto’s Ontario Place theater was built in 1971 as a showcase for both commercial and experimental films, such as those that had been shown at Montreal’s Expo ’67.

7) Imax Is Widely Popular In ChinaOf the almost 750 (as of the time of writing) Imax theaters in the world, more than 100 of them are in China.

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